Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Bojja
Tarakam: The Dalit Leader

Prof.
P. Kesava Kumar

Bojja Tarakam
(1939-2016), a Dalit leader of high eminence passed away on 17th
September 2016. He is a well known Dalit leader with multiple facets to his
personality. He left his mark on most of the democratic struggles of Telugu society in
post independent India. He is a peoples leader, civil rights activist,
advocate, organizer, writer, poet and ideologue of democratic struggles. His
activism has not frozen into either of the dominant streams of his times either
Marxism inspired revolutionary struggles or Dalit movement. He traversed both
with unparallel ease and sense of purpose. He has been critical of Marxism for
its caste blindness. He did not undermine either. Instead he brought credence
to both.

He was born in a village in Konaseema of
coastal Andhra in an Ambedkarite family in 1939. His father, Bojja Appala Swamy
was a first generation dalit leader in independent India and was responsible
for establishing Ambedkar led Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942 and had been elected
as a Member of legislative Assembly in 1950s.

Educate,
Organise and Agitate

Tarakam was an active
student leader and completed his graduation in Law. He started practicing law
from late 1960s to late 1970s in Nizamabad and engaged in wide range of
struggles by organizing Rythu Coolie Sangham and Ambedkar Yuvajana Sangham.
He was arrested during emergency and imprisoned for his public activism on
various issues of people. Later he shifted to Hyderabad and started practicing
in High court and become appointed as public Prosecutor of Administrative Tribunal.
Later, in protest against Karamchedu massacre, he resigned for this post and
continued as senior advocate by taking up the cases of people. He was the
founder vice-president of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC)
and a member of Revolutionary Writers Association (Virasam). Though he was
active in Marxist leaning organization, he never deviated from the core of
Ambedkarism. After Karamchedu masscre, Telugu society has witnessed the strong
assertion of dalits and formed autonomous dalit organization by ideologically
differentiating itself from Marxist politics. In formation of Dalita
Mahasabha in 1985, along with another prominent dalit leader Kathi Padma
Rao, he was the founder president of that organization. He took up the
Karamchedu case. The Dalit Maha Sabha (1985-1991) had a creative intervention
in Telugu society and consequently changed the political discourse. He then
become a state convener for Chunduru Struggle
Committee(1991).The political mobilization of dalits resulted in formation
of Bahujana Samaj Party in A.P. and he was the founder secretary from
1990-1994. He came out of the BSP as a protest against the party for its
alliance with BJP in Uttara Pradesh. He started reviving Republican Party of
India in A.P and came out after Ramdas Athavale’s identification BJP.

His
life was spent in writing fact finding reports, organizing press meets, public
meetings and fighting for justice in courts. He believed in the philosophy of
questioning the social system and state machinery rather than petitioning to
them. It is clear that Tarakam has established credibility with his commitment to
wide range of issues of people and a threshold for democratic struggles. He reached
to the people through his writings on various issues. In Telugu society, public
life was marked by ideological confrontation between left and dalit politics. Many
intellectuals and writers came out of the fold of left politics with emergence
of dalit politics from late eighties. But Tarakam was an exception to this
trend. He was never deviated from the philosophy and practice of Ambedkarism
and viewed every struggle from Ambedkarism. His struggles and writings are
testimony for this. His criticism against revolutionary left is constructive
and anticipated support for dalit issues. His work Kulam –Vargam(Caste-
Class, 1996) ideologically clarifies his position on both caste and class. Apart
from his literary writings Nadiputtina Gonthuka(The Voice That Gave
Birth to the River,1983), Nalage Godavari(The Godavari is Like Me, 2000)
and Panchatantram(2012), his special tracts Nela-Nagali-Mudeddulu(Land,
Plough and Three Oxen, 2008) , Dalitulu-Rajyam (Dalits and the State,2008),
Constitution and the Coup D’ Etat (2000) provides specific theoretical
approach to key issues. In other words,
we may find distinct approach of Tarakam in understanding society and polity.

Dalit Labourer as Third Bull

Tarakam’s
Nela-Nagali- Mudeddulu is about the relations of feudal system and
exploitation of labour. This explains the master and slave relations. Here the
third bull symbolically represents the Paleru(bonded labourer)/ Jeetagadu
(wage labourer). This is a story set in Indian agrarian society and deals with how
the labourer is reduced to the beast. In the feudal set up, labourer does not
have any rights or freedom other than working for the landlord. The landlord
has control over the land. Power and status has invariable relationship with
land. The landlord, social system and state machinery collectively operate to
maintain the status quo in social relations. It depicts a condition of economic
drudgery and mental slavery which is rooted in world view of feudal Brahminical
system. When the labourer realizes that he is a human and that awareness leads
to struggle. It is impossibility as imagination is etched in feudal world view.
The political economy of agrarian
society depicted in an impressive manner in a form of a story in this book.
This is a new genre in literature informed by specifities of political economy.

State, Constitution and Dalit Movement

Dalitulu –Rajyam
depicts the evolution of Indian state and marginalization of dalits. This book
is continued in the above said genre and explains how dalits were kept out of politics
and purview of state. In this he explains the origin and nature of state and
its sustenance in protecting the interests of ruling class/caste by maintain
status quo of dalits. The state has structured such a way that it controls the
anger and aspirations of dalits against the ruling class/caste and state.
Though the welfare state in modern times came up with egalitarian principles to
uphold the dignity of the oppressed, the caste structure and its value system does
not allows the state to be a welfare state based on these principles. He
stretched this logic in Constitution and the Coup D’ Etat , which was
written in the context of Hindutva’s design to review the Indian constitution.
Though the state that based on constitution drafted by Ambedkar was escaping
its role of equalizer, modernizer and liberator of the masses of the country,
but it was checked by the struggles of the country. The conservative hindutva ruling classes felt
the struggles of the oppressed is a threat to the hegemony. To control the
masses and to continue their hegemony, thought of changing the constitution to
suits their interests. By foreseeing this evil intention of hindutva forces,
Tarakam argued that ‘we have to protect this constitution because it promises
justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. We have to save the constitution
because it guarantees the celebrated fundamental freedoms. We have to guard the
constitution because it assures a welfare state.’ Tarakam maintains that if
oppressed people won’t fight against injustice, state will be undemocratic and
monopolized by ruling class/caste.

Literature
as A Medium

Tarakam is a voracious
reader and evaluated literature from a dalit perspective. He took literature as
an organized activity in making people conscious. In seventies, he identified
with Revolutionary Writers Association (Virasam) and in eighties he has
organized all India dalit writers coference with participation of around
thousand writers. In nineties, under his editorship, Nalupu has
initiated the alternative cultural discourse. Tarakam’s Nadi Puuttina Gonthuka
is a poetry written in the context of emergency. We can see a tone of angry
young man raised voice against the authoritarian state. Through his poetry he
questioned the hypocrisy of Gandhian politics, Oh! Mahatma, have you ever lived
with dalits and had a real feel of suffering of dalits? Naalage Godari is later
collection of poetry. To portray the larger and complex social reality, he
chooses the literary form novel.Tarakam’s novel Panchatantram
illustrates the problem of dalits in the background of caste and class
relations in Coastal Andhra village. Viswanath is a landlord of a village and
Suranna works as his Paleru(labourer). The sexual relation between Suranna
and Lakshmi daughter of Viswanath leads to killing of Suranna. Suranna’s father
too was killed for making an attempt to complain against landlord. The story
ends up with the struggles of resistance of young Suranna who was born
illicitly born to Lakshmi and Suranna. This novel depicts the cruel face of the
caste in India in ordinary situation. Land, power and status are with the
landlord. Rules of social system, and state machinery is subordinated the upper
caste landlord. Dalits have no freedom in situations of everyday life. Any
resistance to the authority of landlord was crushed ruthlessly and the
institutions of state were used in their favour. The authority was later
carried by Dattu, grandson of Viswanath. This casteist young man killed those
who contested him (Ganganna , a dalit boy
for contesting against him in school elections, and Gowri , dalit girl
raped and killed by him). In both cases, the son of landlord escaped from the
cases and on other attempts to implicate Suranna, rebellious young dalit man
(illegitimate son of Gowri) who is the force behind Dalit victims. Suranna’s
struggle has no value with the
manipulation of police, courts and doctors by the landlord but Suranna stands
as a moral force in this novel. The novel ends with killing of the landlord
Viswanath in the dark by Sathemma another victim of Viswanath.. The novel not
only depicts the discrimination, helplessness of dalits but also the resistance
of dalits against the landlord in every occasion. In nutshell, the novel
narrates the feudal power and how the structures of village and of state are
succumbed to the power of caste and class. Tarakam believes that this situation
has to be changed for a democratic society. The change has possible only
through struggles of the oppressed in various forms.

Caste
or Class

Kulam-
Vargam is a text of Tarakam that engages with questions of
significance of caste and class in
transforming Indian Society. This political text has been written in a form of
story to reach the ordinary readers. This has its historical significance where
the ideological differences were widened within democratic struggles. This makes
clear the differences between movements of radical left and dalits in
understanding Indian social reality. It sets the programme for the both the
camps in reconstruction of Indian society. In India, caste is the foundation
on which society is organized. Caste alone determines the economic, social,
political and cultural status of the people. He posed a question how can
caste and class be abolished simultaneously? Both caste and class struggles are
constituents of the revolution. The abolition of caste is as revolutionary
as classlessness. Caste struggle is a mental-material revolution, while the
focus of a class struggle tends to be limited to materialistic considerations.
In both Srikakulam and Telangana armed struggles, the communist party did not
addressed caste issue. The upper caste leadership of communist party failed to
take up the issue of caste against the interests of their own castes. He
believes that so long as the leadership remains in the hands of upper castes,
no attempt will be made to bring about fundamental changes. Tarakam believes
that annihilation of caste and class is an immediate political necessity. It is
the responsibility of both Dalit and
Marxist struggles, otherwise both will not sustain. In the process of
struggle, dialogue between these groups inevitable. It needs conviction and
energy to overcome immediate hurdles. Tarakam had both conviction and energy in
a dream of realizing social revolution.

Multi faceted Life

He worked for the
struggles of the people in his entire life. He has simultaneously involved in
the revolutionary struggles and dalit struggles. He is consistent in his firm
political conviction of ideology of liberation of oppressed. The organizational
structures were never constraints for him. He valued every effort and struggle
of the people, whatever may be the form or political affiliation. He was in
forefront of all the democratic struggles of Telugu society. His politics has
larger canvas. He was directly and indirectly part of all the people struggles
for a period of five decades. This includes both class and caste
struggles- land struggles, Beedi workers
struggles, political prisoners, fake encounters, struggles against Special economic
zones, struggles against SC/ST atrocities, specific struggles against
Padirikuppam, Karamchedu, Chunduru, Nirukonda, Timmasamudram, Laximpeta
massacres. He expressed his political position through his speeches and write
ups. It bears a distinctive dalit point of view. Tarakam was not confined to
the political struggles and extended himself to literary and cultural domains.
He believed that politics has to be based on strong social and cultural
foundations. He wrote poetry, novels, poetic prose and essays. For him,
literary writing is a political necessity. To express himself and to reach people,
he invented a new political genre that fused social/political theory and
literature. The liberation of the oppressed is the underlying theme of all his
writings. His politics and writings set against the ruling caste-ruling class
and state. Tarakam is an organic intellectual in Gramscian sense. He was
organized the oppressed social groups (dalits) keeping in forefront and felt
the need for having alliances with other groups against the dominant ruling
caste/class hegemony and state.

In establishing the
hegemony of the ordinary people, Tarakam believed in Ideology of Ambedkar as a
political ideology to bring about just social order. All his speeches and
writings reflects the essence of Ambedkar thought. He made us to understand
Ambedkar in simple terms for ordinary public. He has translated some of the
volumes of Ambedkar writings and formed Ambedkar memorial trust. Rather
reproducing the Ambedkar, he has creatively interpreted Ambedkar to suits the
contemporary situation. He negotiated with Marxists from Ambedkarist position. He
made his position clear that without understanding the caste, it is difficult
to have a successful revolution. Both Marxist movements and Dalit movements
have to work simultaneously for annihilation of caste and class. Tarakam’s
contribution is that he opens up the category of dalit as a broad political
category that have the spirit of rebellion against dominance. We can see a
conscious effort on his part from the time of Dalit Maha Sabha till his last
breath.

Lost
Horizons

The
life of Tarakam is devoted to democratic struggles having connections to
diverse ideological positions and organizations. He participated in all the
democratic struggles of our society. It is difficult to fill the gap of Tarakam
especially to regain such rich cultural past of democratic struggles and the
way he mediated contesting ideological positions in the liberation of the
oppressed. The strength of Tarakam lies in moving beyond the dichotomy of
Marxism and Ambedkarism. He has created larger ideological frame work for dalit
liberation through his relentless engagement in public struggles which has
economic as well as cultural dimension. Dalit politics in Telugu society have
entered into a new phase in which assertion of exclusive identity becomes means
for self recognition. It is important to celebrate the historically and
culturally marginalized identity to achieve self affirmation. Unfortunately
dalit politics during this phase has avoided economic and cultural issues. It
has not only narrowed the scope of politics but also fails to carry out multi dimensional
struggles. The dalit mobilization has become self congratulatory without focusing
on suffering. Due to lack of strong political foundations, this dalit identity
has not only become authoritarian but also looses on liberatory content of
dalit struggles of previous decades. The direction of dalit movement has
changed. There is no voice of protest
and the new dalit leadership became subordinate to power of ruling castes. This
kind of situation undermines dalit politics. It becomes a suicidal situation
for dalit politics. One thing is clear that the generation of Tarakam had never
bowed down to these ruling communities/classes and had a relentless fight
against the undemocratic system. He never compromised with system and lived
with honesty. When the political struggles of dalits were at low phase, he
channelized his energies to literature. He never took retirement from public
life and waged consistent struggle against oppressive Brahminical society and
undemocratic state. Tarakam has opened up the space for dalit politics by
widening dalit identity. His struggle is for dignity, political power and
rights and not for subordination to the centers of power.